DOCSLIB.ORG

The Natural Paradise: Painting in America 1800-1950

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Natural Paradise: Painting in America 1800-1950 NO. 85 FOR RELEASE: Oct. 1, 1976 PRESS PREVIEW: Wednesday September 29, 1976 The Museum of Modern Art 11:0°am -4:00 Pm 11 West 53 Street, New York, N.Y. 10019 Tel. 956-6100 Cable: Modernart THE NATURAL PARADISE: PAINTING IN AMERICA 1800-1950 THE NATURAL PARADISE: PAINTING IN AMERICA 1800-1950, an exhibition sur­ veying the romantic tradition in American art, will be on view at The Museum of Modern Art from October 1 through November 30. Directed by Kynaston McShine, Curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture, who also edited the fully illustrated book that accompanies the exhibition*, the show includes 157 works lent by private collectors and museums in the U.S. and Europe. It will be on view in the Museum's Rene' d'Harnoncourt Galleries (1st floor). The exhibition, presented on the occasion of the Bicentennial, has been made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Featuring 84 nineteenth-century works and 73 paintings of the twentieth century, THE NATURAL PARADISE probes and clarifies those attitudes—romantic, transcendental, intent on the sublime—that have grandly and persistently linked the aspirations of American artists. From the landscapes of Albert Bierstadt and Frederic E. Church to Barnett Newman's and Mark Rothko's attempts to capture "The Sublime" in totally abstract and metaphorical terms, there exists what Professor Robert Rosenblum has called in his catalog essay an "obsessive fas­ cination with the heavenly and hellish extremes of nature." Professor Rosenblum goes on to underscore the pressing current need for a reexamination of this distinctive, coherent American tradition in painting and its influence on modern *THE NATURAL PARADISE: PAINTING IN AMERICA 1800-1950. Edited by Kynaston McShine, with essays by Barbara Novak, Robert Rosenblum and John Wilmerding. 180 pages, 185 illustrations (16 in color). Clothbound $19.95; paperbound $7.95. Published by The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Distributed to the trade by New York Graphic Society, Boston. The Natural Paradise: Painting in America 1800-1950 October 1-November 30, 1976 NO. 85 Page 2 art, particularly Abstract Expressionism, when he notes: "Now, in the year of the Bicentennial, it is especially appropriate to explore the native soil from which the Abstract Expressionists grew. This book and the exhibition it accompanies should therefore help to reassess the proportions of America to Europe in their achievement, and to consider what aspects of their work should be regrafted onto American trees." While the connection between international abstract art and the work of Pollock, Still, Newman and Rothko has been recognized from the first, critics and the public have been slow to appreciate in the work of these painters a continuation or extension of attitudes that have characterized American art over the generations. By undertaking such a survey of the romantic current in American painting, The Museum of Modern Art continues to recognize that, as Mr. McShine writes, "other periods of art can illuminate the present and provide a more general understanding of modern art." The English philosopher John Locke observed: "In the beginning, all the world was America." This succinctly described the imagined America—a vastness populated by "noble savages" and filled with exotic flora and fauna, an abun­ dance promising freedom and opportunity, a natural paradise. In this new land the European settler developed a romantic consciousness, an elemental relation­ ship to the land itself, to earth and water in all their primeval benevolence, silence and terror. The romantic paintings of Washington Allston, such as Landscape with a Lake (1804), expressed the first flowering in art of a distinctively American expe­ rience, a focusing on nature in its most profound and universal sense. Yet, Allston, who studied in Europe at the beginning of the nineteenth century, em­ bodies the paradox that while American painters were confromted with the wilder­ ness and unusual landscapes, they frequently sought out European models, placing themselves under the influence of a Claude or a Salvator Rosa, or later, of a Turner or Constable. Throuthout the nineteenth century American artists often (more) NO. 85 Page 3 returned to the European art centers of London, Rome, Dusseldorf and Paris to study. Nevertheless, an American style began to develop, perhaps achieving its first blossoming in the Hudson River School—the landscapes of Thomas Cole and his companions—and shortly afterward, in the sublime paintings of the Luminists- Martin Johnson Heade, Sanford R. Gifford and Fitz Hugh Lane. Their concept of nature was strongly tied to the literature and philosophy of the time, particu­ larly the writings of Emerson and Thoreau. In the paintings of the Luminists, such as Heade's Newburyport Marshes: Passing Storm (c. 1865-70), Gifford's Kauterskill Falls (1862) or Fitz Hugh Lane's Brace's Rock, Eastern Point, Gloucester (1863), we experience, as Professor Rosenblum observes, "that silent, primordial void of light and space where material forms, whether animal, vegetable, or mineral, are virtually pulverized or banished by the incorporeal deity of light." And Professor John Wilmerding, in his catalog essay, finds an explicit link between Luminism and the art of the Abstract Expressionists a century later: "In their consciousness of the spiritual as well as physical presence of the country's landscape, their celebration of an expansive continen­ tal and pictorial scale, their evocation of both personal and national energies, the two movements present telling distillations of the American character." There is almost a religiosity surrounding the nineteenth-century romantic painters, who felt an increasing urgency to transmute the objective world— whether a quiet clearing in the woods or a chasm of the Colorado—into the almost unattainable sublime. Indeed, Frederic E. Church's Niagara Falls (1857) conveys a spirituality of which Barbara Novak in her contribution to the cata­ log writes: "The waterfall and the still lake—the visual symbols of sound and silence—often signaled the oppositions of old and new sublimity. As in Chris­ tian symbolism, water, a medium poised between transparency and reflection, touched upon central spiritual profundities that engaged the age." (more) NO. 85 Page 4 The romantic impulse and sensibility that had conquered the majestic Hudson and the awesome Niagara now compelled the more adventurous and the more passion­ ate artists to explore new regions of the seemingly boundless Western hemisphere. Frederic E. Church's journeys to Colombia, Ecuador, Jamaica and Labrador resulted in paintings such as Cotopaxi (1862) and Rainy Season in the Tropics (1866). William Bradford painted An Arctic Summer, Boring through the Pack Ice in Melville Bay (1871) after his trip to the Arctic, and Martin Johnson Heade pursued the splendid hummingbirds and alluring orchids of Brazil. Not neglected were the magnificent wonders of Yosemite, the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone. Professor Novak writes: "The landscape artists fulfilled a painterly 'manifest destiny' of their own. As God's continent opened up before them, these artist-explorers followed quickly, either traveling with the topographical expeditions or close behind them. As curates of God's nature, they felt a special obligation to experience the widest range of natural aspects and climates." The natural won­ ders of the American West provided new and vast dimensions for paintings such as Albert Bierstadt's The Great Trees, Mariposa Grove, California (c.1875) and Thomas Moran's The Chasm of the Colorado (1873-74). Included in the exhibition are other major nineteenth-century American paintings such as George Caleb Bingham's The Storm (c. 1850), Ralph Albert Blakelock's The Poetry of Moonlight (c. 1880-90), Thomas Cole's Mount Etna from Taormina (1844), Winslow Homer's Winter Coast (1890), John Frederick Kensett's Coast Scene with Figures (1869), and Albert Pinkham Ryder's Macbeth and the Witches (1890-1908) and Toilers of the Sea (c. 1880-84). With the approach of the twentieth century, the wilderness began to recede and to yield to expansion and industrialization. Faced by the growing complex­ ities of an increasingly pluralistic society, the Transcendental tradition in American art became somewhat attenuated. Innovations in contemporary European art such as Impressionism were well-known to American artists, who in contin­ uing their involvement with nature could scarcely ignore the discoveries and -. (more) NO. 85 Page 5 accomplishments of a Ce'zanne. The influence of Impressionism is particularly marked in paintings such as Thomas Wilmer Dewing's The White Birch (c. 1896-99), Frank Duveneck's Ophelia (c. 1885-90) and John Singer Sargent's Val d'Aosta (A Stream over Rocks) (c. 1910). The emergence of Cubism introduced an interna­ tional vocabulary that was reinforced and extended by Kandinsky's abstractions. Georgia O'Keeffe, Arthur G. Dove and Marsden Hartley continued the American involvement with nature; however, it was only a partial ingredient in their assertion of a larger romantic and aesthetic response to be achieved through the masterful painter!iness evident in O'Keeffe's Orange and Red Streak (1919), Dove's Sunrise, III (1937) or Hartley's Evening Storm, Schoodic, Maine (1942). With the rapid intellectual and political changes of the first decades of the twentieth century, the heroic could no longer be measured concretely. While the artist still could embrace the sense of space and the grandeur
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art Receives the Extraordinary American Art Collection of Theodore E
    March 9, 2021 CONTACT: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Emily Sujka Cell: (407) 907-4021 Office: (407) 645-5311, ext. 109 [email protected] The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art Receives the Extraordinary American Art Collection of Theodore E. Stebbins Jr. and Susan Cragg Stebbins Note to Editors: Attached is a high-resolution image of Theodore E. Stebbins Jr. and Susan Cragg Stebbins. Images of several paintings in the gift are available via this Dropbox link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7d3r2vyp4nyftmi/AABg2el2ZCP180SIEX2GTcFTa?dl=0. WINTER PARK, FL—Theodore E. Stebbins Jr. and Susan Cragg Stebbins have given their outstanding collection of American art to The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art in Winter Park, Florida. The couple have made their gift in honor of Mrs. Stebbins’s parents, Evelyn and Henry Cragg, longtime residents of Winter Park. Mr. Cragg was a member of the Charles Homer Morse Foundation board of trustees from its founding in 1976 until his death in 1988. It is impossible to think about American art scholarship, museum culture, and collecting without the name Theodore Stebbins coming to mind. Stebbins has had an illustrious career as a professor of art history and as curator at the Yale University Art Gallery (1968–77), the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (1977–2000), and the Harvard Art Museums (2001–14). Many of Stebbins’s former students occupy positions of importance throughout the art world. Among his numerous publications are his broad survey of American works on paper, American Master Drawings and Watercolors: A History of Works on Paper from Colonial Times to the Present (1976), and his definitive works on American painter Martin Johnson Heade (1819–1904) including the Life and Work of Martin Johnson Heade (2000).
    [Show full text]
  • Lackawanna Valley
    MAN and the NATURAL WORLD: ROMANTICISM (Nineteenth-Century American Landscape Painting) NINETEENTH-CENTURY AMERICAN LANDSCAPE PAINTING Online Links: Thomas Cole – Wikipedia Hudson River School – Wikipedia Frederic Edwin Church – Wikipedia Cole's Oxbow – Smarthistory Cole's Oxbow (Video) – Smarthistory Church's Niagara and Heart of the Andes - Smarthistory Thomas Cole. The Oxbow (View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm), 1836, oil on canvas Thomas Cole (1801-1848) was one of the first great professional landscape painters in the United States. Cole emigrated from England at age 17 and by 1820 was working as an itinerant portrait painter. With the help of a patron, he traveled to Europe between 1829 and 1832, and upon his return to the United States he settled in New York and became a successful landscape painter. He frequently worked from observation when making sketches for his paintings. In fact, his self-portrait is tucked into the foreground of The Oxbow, where he stands turning back to look at us while pausing from his work. He is executing an oil sketch on a portable easel, but like most landscape painters of his generation, he produced his large finished works in the studio during the winter months. Cole painted this work in the mid- 1830s for exhibition at the National Academy of Design in New York. He considered it one of his “view” paintings because it represents a specific place and time. Although most of his other view paintings were small, this one is monumentally large, probably because it was created for exhibition at the National Academy.
    [Show full text]
  • FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE the Olana Partnership, Director of Advancement and Marketing Melanie Hasbrook, [email protected]
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE The Olana Partnership, Director of Advancement and Marketing Melanie Hasbrook, [email protected] Thomas Cole National Historic Site, Director of External Relations Jennifer Greim, [email protected] Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Public Relations Director Beth Bobbitt, [email protected] Major Collaborative Exhibition Organized by the Thomas Cole National Historic Site and The Olana Partnership at Olana State Historic Site in New York and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas Rescheduled to September 2020 through March 2022. It Will Show at a Total of Five National Venues. The Exhibition Explores the Theme of “Cross Pollination” and Communities Working Together in Art and Nature from the 19th Century to the Contemporary Moment. The National Project Stems from the Artist Martin Johnson Heade’s 19th-Century Series of Hummingbird and Habitat Paintings, The Gems of Brazil, and their Unique Relationship to the Epic Landscapes of Hudson River School Artists Thomas Cole and Frederic Church, as well as their Continued Significance to Contemporary Artists Working Today. Hudson & Catskill, NY, and Bentonville, AR: Olana, Thomas Cole National Historic Site and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art announced today the new dates for the major exhibition, “Cross Pollination: Heade, Cole, Church, and Our Contemporary Moment” in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The exhibition will culminate at the organizing museums in 2021 and 2022. Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, Jacksonville, FL September 5, 2020 – January 17, 2021 Martin Johnson Heade, Hooded Visorbearer, ca. 1863–64, oil on Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC canvas, 12 1/4 x 10 in.
    [Show full text]
  • Thomas Cole, the Course of Empire (Series), 1836, New-York Historical Society (Reconstruction of the Original Installation)
    Thomas Cole, The Course of Empire (series), 1836, New-York Historical Society (reconstruction of the original installation) Emanuel Leutze (1816-1868), Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way (mural study, U.S. Capitol), 1861, oil on canvas, 3¼ x 43 3/8 in. (84.5 x 110.1 cm.) Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. U.S. Territorial Growth in the Nineteenth Century Fanny Palmer (1812-1876), Across the Continent: Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way, 1868, color lithograph, 23.78 x 32.20 in. (60.4 x 81.8 cm), published by Currier and Ives, The Library of Congress, Washington, DC Jasper F. Cropsey (1823-1900), Starruca Viaduct, Pennsylvania, 1865, oil on canvas, 22.36 x 36.38 in. (56.8 x 92.4 cm), Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900), Niagara, 1857, oil on canvas, 41.9 x 90.5 in. (106.5 x 229.9 cm), The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC Thomas Cole, Distant View of Niagara Falls, 1830, oil on panel, 18 7/8 x 23 7/8 in. (47.9 x 60.6 cm), Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900), Niagara, 1857, oil on canvas, 41.9 x 90.5 in. (106.5 x 229.9 cm), The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC Church, Niagara (detail); Cole, The Oxbow (detail) William H. Bartlett, The Terrapin Tower, 1839, engraving, R. Brandard Frederick Church (1824-1900), Heart of the Andes, 1859, oil on canvas, 68 1/8 x 119 ¼ in.
    [Show full text]
  • Volume 36 Number 2 the Magazine of the Victorian Society in America
    Nineteenth Century The Magazine of the Victorian Society in America Volume 36 Number 2 Nineteenth Contents Century hhh THE MAGAZINE OF THE VICTORIAN SOCIETY IN AMERICA VOLuMe 36 • NuMBer 2 FALL 2016 Editor Warren Ashworth Consulting Editor William Ayres Book Review Editor Karen Zukowski Maymont 2 Managing Editor / A VIRGINIA STUDY IN GILDED AGE ECLECTICISM Graphic Designer Dale Cyrus Wheary Wendy Midgett Printed by Official Offset Corp. Amityville, New York Politics and Paintings 10 EMANUEL LEUTZE, wILLIAM HENRY POwELL, AND THE CAPITOL ROTUNDA Committee on Publications Chair Barbara J. Mitnick Warren Ashworth William Ayres Hummingbirds, Emperors, and Railway Barons Anne-Taylor Cahill 16 Christopher Forbes HEADE’S gems AND THEIR JOURNEYS Sally Buchanan Kinsey Cynthia Haveson Veloric Michael J. Lewis Barbara J. Mitnick James F. O’Gorman Jaclyn Spainhour The Struggle for Professionalism 24 Karen Zukowski ARCHITECT’S DRAwINGS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY For information on The Victorian Robin H. Prater Society in America, contact the national office: 1636 Sansom Street Philadelphia, PA 19103 (215) 636-9872 Fax (215) 636-9873 Departments [email protected] www.victoriansociety.org 34 Preservation Diary GREENE AND GREENE’S ROBERT PITCAIRN, JR. HOUSE, PASADENA Anne E. Mallek 37 Journeys YOUNG BUSLER GOES TO THE FAIR Jeanne Solensky 42 The Bibliophilist 47 Milestones 49 Contributors Valerie A. Balint THE 40 ELEPHANTS Anne-Taylor Cahill RAMPAGE LONDON Tara Leigh Tappert Anne-Taylor Cahill Cover: Martin Johnson Heade, Hummingbird and Passionflowers , c.1875. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Fireplace in the Den at Maymont. Photo by Dale Quarterman. Maymont A VIRGINIA STUDY IN GILDED AGE ECLECTICISM Dale Cyrus Wheary We spent such a delightful evening at major Dooley’s beautiful home ‘maymont.’ It is really a show place.
    [Show full text]
  • A Finding Aid to the Martin Johnson Heade Papers, 1853-1904, in the Archives of American Art
    A Finding Aid to the Martin Johnson Heade Papers, 1853-1904, in the Archives of American Art Erin Corley Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art. November 01, 2006 Archives of American Art 750 9th Street, NW Victor Building, Suite 2200 Washington, D.C. 20001 https://www.aaa.si.edu/services/questions https://www.aaa.si.edu/ Table of Contents Collection Overview ........................................................................................................ 1 Administrative Information .............................................................................................. 1 Biographical Note............................................................................................................. 2 Scope and Content Note................................................................................................. 2 Arrangement..................................................................................................................... 2 Names and Subjects ...................................................................................................... 3 Container Listing ............................................................................................................. 4 Series 1: Martin Johnson Heade papers, circa 1853-1904...................................... 4 Martin Johnson Heade papers AAA.headmart Collection Overview Repository: Archives of American Art Title: Martin Johnson Heade papers Identifier: AAA.headmart
    [Show full text]
  • Martin Johnson Heade Letter to Frederic Edwin Church
    Martin Johnson Heade letter to Frederic Edwin Church Archives of American Art 750 9th Street, NW Victor Building, Suite 2200 Washington, D.C. 20001 https://www.aaa.si.edu/services/questions https://www.aaa.si.edu/ Table of Contents Collection Overview ........................................................................................................ 1 Administrative Information .............................................................................................. 1 Scope and Contents........................................................................................................ 1 Names and Subjects ...................................................................................................... 1 Container Listing ...................................................................................................... Martin Johnson Heade letter to Frederic Edwin Church AAA.headmart2 Collection Overview Repository: Archives of American Art Title: Martin Johnson Heade letter to Frederic Edwin Church Identifier: AAA.headmart2 Date: 1868 Creator: Heade, Martin Johnson, 1819-1904 Extent: 1 Item ((6 p.)) Language: English . Administrative Information Acquisition Information Donated by William Sandrik and Dr. Martin Stampien, Jr., 1992. Sandrik purchased the letter at a philatelic show in Washington, D.C., 1992. Available Formats 35mm microfilm reel 5050 (fr. 981-993) available at Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan. Restrictions Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited
    [Show full text]
  • Martin Johnson Heade Conservation Report
    1100 West Cermak Road, Suite C-203, Chicago, IL 60608 | P: 312.733.5178 F: 312.733.0675 | [email protected] | www.parmaconservation.com August 31, 2018 Mr. James Jackson Jackson’s International Auctioneer and Appraisers 2229 Lincoln Street Cedar Falls, Iowa 50613 Re: Brazilian Hummingbirds, oil on canvas. Dear Mr. Jackson, Thank you for referring this painting to us for condition assessment and conservation. We are grateful to have had the opportunity to study it. The painting was examined using microscopy, regular light photography and micro-photography, near infrared imaging and x-radiography and solubility tests for cleaning. The information drawn from these methods of examination will help us to confidently proceed with the conservation of this beautiful painting. You will find our conclusions and supporting illustrations contained, herein. REPORT Brazilian Hummingbirds from “The Gems of Brazil” Series - 1863 -1864 (FIG. 1). Attributed to: MARTIN JOHNSON HEADE [1819-1904]. Oil on canvas. 30.48 x 25.4 cm. (12 x 10 in.) Background “American painter Martin Johnson Heade (1819–1904) specialized in landscapes, seascapes, and still lifes during his long career. Born the son of a farmer in rural Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Heade began to paint in his late teens after he received art training from a neigh- bor. At age twenty-four, Heade launched a career as a portrait painter and spent the next fifteen years traveling around the United States and Europe in search of commissions. He was nearly forty years old when he began to paint the New England coastline and salt marshes, subjects whose light and atmosphere would preoccupy him for several years.
    [Show full text]
  • Fitz Henry Lane's Series Paintings of Brace's Rock: Meaning and Technique
    Fitz Henry Lane’s Series Paintings of Brace’s Rock: Meaning and Technique FITZ HENRY LANE’S SERIES PAINTINGS OF BRACE’S ROCK: MEANING AND TECHNIQUE A report concerning the relationship of Lane’s painting series, Brace’s Rock Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, MA (CAM) National Gallery of Art, Washington DC (NGA) Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago (TFAA) By H. Travers Newton, Jr., Consultant, Painting Conservation Studio, Cleveland Museum of Art Based on collaborative research with Marcia Steele, Chief Conservator, Cleveland Museum of Art Prepared for Elizabeth Kennedy, Curator of Collection, edited by Peter John Brownlee, Associate Curator, with the assistance of Naomi H. Slipp, Curatorial Intern, Terra Foundation for American Art April, 2010 ©2010 H. Travers Newton, Jr. 1 Table of Contents Project Introduction and Summary, 3 Part One: Review of the Literature I. Historical Background of Lane’s Images of Brace’s Rock, 4 II. Thematic Inspirations, Interpretations and Precedents: 1. Shipwrecks, 6 2. Nineteenth-Century Panorama Drawings and Paintings in the United States, 12 3. Influence of Thomas Doughty’s Nahant Beach Series, 14 4. Influence of Thomas Chambers, 16 5. Possible European Influences: Dutch Landscapes, 17 6. British Influences: John Ruskin and the Depiction of Rock Formations, 17 7. German and Danish Influences: Caspar David Friedrich and Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, 20 Part Two: New Conservation Research on the Brace’s Rock Series, 21 III. Comparison of National Gallery of Art and Cape Ann Museum Versions of Brace’s Rock 1. Relationship of the Field Sketch to the Paintings: The Setting, 22 2. Absence of Reflections in Lane’s Drawings, 24 3.
    [Show full text]
  • Fitz Henry Lane and Maxim and Martha Karolik: a Tale of Two Love Stories Lecture Finding Aid & Transcript
    FITZ HENRY LANE AND MAXIM AND MARTHA KAROLIK: A TALE OF TWO LOVE STORIES LECTURE FINDING AID & TRANSCRIPT Speaker: Carol Troyen Date: 7/19/2007 Runtime: 1:01:50 Camera Operator: Christopher Williams Identification: VL05; Video Lecture #05 Citation: Troyen, Carol. “Fitz Henry Lane and Maxim and Martha Karolik: A Tale of Two Love Stories.” CAM Video Lecture Series, 7/19/2007. VL05, Cape Ann Museum Library & Archives, Gloucester, MA. Copyright: Requests for permission to publish material from this collection should be addressed to the Librarian/Archivist. Language: English Finding Aid: Description: Karla Kaneb, 4/14/2020. Transcript: Karla Kaneb, Amanda Pollock, Paul Romary, Trenton Carls, 9/1/2020. Video Description Held at Gloucester City Hall, this is the first in a series of three guest lectures presented to coincide with Fitz Henry Lane and Mary Blood Mellen: Old Mysteries and New Discoveries, an exhibition offered at the Cape Ann Museum from July 7, Fitz Henry Lane and Maxim and Martha Karolik: A Tale of Two Love Stories – VL05 – page 2 2007, through September 16, 2007. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, curator Carol Troyen speaks about the husband and wife collecting team of Maxim and Martha Karolik in terms of their focus on many previously ignored chapters in American fine and decorative arts. In particular, Troyen discusses the Karoliks’ part in the quiet rediscovery of 19th century artists such as Fitz Henry Lane and Martin Johnson Heade in light of the prevailing cultural moods of the first half of the 20th century. Along with their particular interest in self-taught artists with modest reputations, the Karoliks’ commitment of over 2,000 objects to the MFA’s collections has helped to build critical acclaim for several subsets of American art.
    [Show full text]
  • Thomas J. Watson Library Digital Collections | the Metropolitan
    The Metropolitan Museum of Art AiU 19th CENTURY AMERICAN LANDSCAPE Queens County Art and Cultural Center November 10-December 10,1972 The Metropolitan Museum of Art January—February 1973 Memorial Art Gallery of The University of Rochester- March-April 1973 An exhibition from The Metropolitan Museum of Art made possible by grants from the New York State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment on the Arts. I>t is indeed a great selected the paintings, wrote the introduc­ honor for the Metropolitan Museum of tion and prepared the catalogue entries Art to initiate the Queens County Art with the help of Assistant Curators and Cultural Center with the exhibition, Natalie Spassky and Lewis Sharp, as well Nineteenth Century American as Janet Miller, Departmental Secretary. Landscape. Congratulations to Borough Special thanks go to Edward Bloodgood, President Donald R. Manes; Parks, Roland Brand and Sandy Canzoneri Recreation and Cultural Affairs for installing the exhibition. The Administrator August Heckscher; Com­ catalogue was designed by John Murello missioner of Cultural Affairs, Phyllis in cooperation with Stuart Silver, Robinson, the staff of the Cultural Administrator of the Museum's Design Center, and the many Queens residents Department. Bret Waller, Museum who have worked so long and hard to Educator in charge of Public Education, achieve this moment. I sincerely, hope assisted in the production of the catalogue that this will prove an auspicious and in providing the liaison with beginning, and that many fine exhibitions Rochester. Among the countless other and programs will follow. 'unsung heros' are those in the Registrar's Nineteenth Century Office responsible for all packing and American Landscape has been coordi­ shipping arrangements, and in the nated by the Department of Community Security Department providing the excel­ Programs and made possible by grants lent guardianship at the Queens County from the New York State Council on the Art and Cultural Center.
    [Show full text]
  • Neither Land Nor Water: Martin Johnson Heade
    NEITHER LAND NOR WATER: MARTIN JOHNSON HEADE, FREDERIC EDWIN CHURCH, AND AMERICAN LANDSCAPE PAINTING IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY BY Elizabeth T. Holmstead ABSTRACT Martin Johnson Heade and Frederic Edwin Church had a close personal relationship, shared a studio for more than a decade, and maintained a correspondence that lasted nearly forty years. Church was better known and certainly more successful commercially than Heade, but despite their close proximity DQG+HDGH¶V personal and professional admiration for Church, Heade should not be seen as an imitator of Church. +HDGH¶Vpaintings are a departure from &KXUFK¶VZRUN in both form and content. In particular, a study of +HDGH¶V many marsh paintings reveals that, ZKLOH+HDGHXVHGVRPHRI&KXUFK¶VFRPSRVLWLonal elements, +HDGH¶V preparation, working method, purpose, and message to his audience are quite different from those of Church. +HDGH¶Vmarsh paintings make their own unique contribution to the history of American art. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS With Grateful Thanks to Jeffrey R. Holmstead and Heather N. Hardy iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................. iii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS .......................................................................................................... v CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................
    [Show full text]